Until It's Christmas For Us All
by HecateA
Summary: When the Full Moon falls on Christmas Eve, the Marauders decide to stay at school with Remus over the break. James only wishes that there was something more they could do for him. Oneshot, Christmas gift for a friend.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #10, Healer Studies Task #1 Write about attempting to become an Animagus

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

* * *

**Until It's Christmas For Us All **

Peter was sitting on the best window seat in Gryffindor Tower, looking outside as the snow piled on.

"It's got to be cold out there," Peter said. "Remus must be freezing."

"He'll be transforming soon," Sirius said from his spot on the floor. He was sitting on his stomach, pouring over a book, with his hair pulled up into a bun held in place by his wand. "Hopefully that will help."

"Will it?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. Nobody knows _shit _about lycanthrope."

James sighed. He'd talked to his father about it, without mentioning the details of Remus' condition in particular, of course. Dad had said that lycanthrope was particularly difficult to understand and learn about because it was impossible to test theories or observe without being in danger. The few who had tried following werewolves throughout transformations had found themselves torn apart or bitten, as their safety precautions inevitably failed. Werewolves, after all, were powerful hunters.

"I mean, it has to help," Peter went on. "Werewolves have fur, don't they? Wolves have coats, and all. Probably thick winter coats do, most animals do…"

"Animals," James repeated.

"I'm not calling Remus an animal, he's _not, _he's our friend," Peter said fiercely. "But just…"

"No, no it's brilliant, Peter!" James said. "We could be animals!"

His friends looked at him and blinked.

"James, bring us to the place your brain is in," Sirius reminded him.

"Quick! To the library before curfew falls," James said, picking himself off the floor and bolting for the portrait entrance.

* * *

"Alright, gentlemen," James said.

He tugged the biscuit tin from his backpack and slid it on the floor near their pile of books. Once upon a time, it had been full of his mother's sweet potato pudding, plantain chips, and Gizzada. Those were all long gone, but he had been refilling the container with shortbread stolen from McGonagall's tin, one detention at a time.

"Here's some brain food to get us started," James said. "Pile 1A is books about human-to-animal transfiguration, pile 1B is about the history of Animagi, pile 1C had everything Madam Pince was willing to give me on Healers' accounts of treating Animagi transformations gone wrong, pile 2 is Ministry records on Animagi in Great Britain, and then pile 3 is everything we've been able to compile from our notes about McGonagall and how she did it. How do you want to divvy all this up? Peter, get away from the window. It's cold there."

Peter came to join them before the roaring fireplace. They had the whole common room to themselves, essentially. Most other Gryffindors had gone home for Christmas; they had just refused to leave Remus alone in the castle, knowing full well that the Full Moon's timing with Christmas Eve would keep him there. They'd all agree to this in September but hadn't told Remus until it was far too late for him to protest or try to talk them out of it—which was to say the morning the train was leaving.

"I'm just worried," Peter said. "Though I suppose that's why we're doing this."

"It is," Sirius said. "I'll take the Healers' accounts."

"Take good notes, not that shite you do in Charms," James said. "Peter?"

"I'll do notes from McGonagall," Peter said. "I always tune out but should get caught up. Do you want me to put a kettle over the fire first?"

"Please," James said, sliding the appropriate pile towards Peter—scraps of paper torn out of their notebooks or off the corners of parchment paper, compiled chronologically as they'd heard more and learned more about how she'd gone and become an Animagus. Thankfully, James had asked a lot of questions about McCatagall, as they called it, over the years.

"I wonder what animal each of us will be," Sirius said.

"If we can manage it," Peter said.

"_When _we manage it," James said. "That's a good question, Black…"

"I'd like to be something soft," Sirius said. He flopped onto his back, holding something a page of notes up over his head. "I suppose we'd want animals big enough to mobilize a werewolf, in case something ever went wrong."

"Not too big," Peter said. "I mean, we'd need something small to press the root of the tree and paralyze the Whomping Willow. Animals can't exactly pick up the stick Madam Pomfrey used, and we can't turn back to human form if we have Remus with us..."

"Good point," James said. "Okay, so we're going to need someone on the smaller size too, but I agree with Sirius. Remus will never go for this if we don't have a contingency plan. You know how he is, all doom and gloom and worried and worst-case-scenario."

"Bah, humbug," Sirius said. "He doesn't need to _like _it."

"Except he does," James said. "He has so little control over what happens on the Full Moon, Sirius. We can't add to that… to that…"

Peter chimed in as he looked for the right word.

"Loss," he said.

James nodded and Sirius sighed.

"I know that this is all about giving him a win over this, but it's just... hard," Sirius said. "Wanting to give him the world when he thinks he deserves so little."

"Remus Lupin is a logical man," James said. "Also a very tired one. If we bring him a concrete plan, it will be fine. Said plan does need to be sourced, however, so let's get to it shall we?"

They spent the night pooling together their snacks, resources, energy, and notes. They took turns putting a new log in the fireplace and roasting marshmallows or sausages they'd collected from Gigi, their favourite kitchen House Elf. When one of them fell asleep, they were immediately pelted with crumpled up balls of parchment and woken up. The clock chimed midnight, bringing them into Christmas Day itself, but nobody said anything. They had agreed to this the moment they'd all written home to tell their parents they were staying put: this Christmas would be different. This Christmas wouldn't come, wouldn't be Christmas, until it was Christmas for each and every one of them. James should have felt tired, but he was hyper-focused now as that tug in his stomach, the whisper in the back of his head, told him that they may even get a Christmas miracle out of this.

And then, around 6:00 a.m., all the pieces of said miracle slid together as the last shortbread disappeared.

* * *

He was surprised to see the other boys surrounding him when he woke up for real—that was, waking up in the hospital wing in fresh, clean clothes instead of aching and freezing on the floor of the Shrieking Shack.

He'd been suspicious that their decision to stay in the castle over the holidays would alert Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall, and maybe even Dumbledore, that his friends knew his secret. He was sure they were all suspicious already, but there was something comforting in the plausible deniability of it all.

The fact that they were all sitting at his bedside in the infirmary, Sirius slumped against James and Peter on the floor with his head resting on James' knees, definitely sealed the deal.

James looked halfway into a coma when Remus met his eyes, but he grinned when he saw him wake up.

"Merry Christmas, Remus," James said. Only then did Remus notice the pile of paper that James was holding against his chest, covered in their three distinctively messy penmanships. There was a timeline of some sort, with arrows and symbols on the back too—it seemed quite complicated. James' hair looked a mess, as if he hadn't slept all night.

"We saved you some of these sticky cinnamon buns the house elves made for Christmas morning breakfast, whenever you're ready," James said. "We've never seen them before but they are to _die _for."

"Thanks," Remus said. His throat felt raw as he spoke, as his muscles and the tissue and the sinews in him remembered how to be human. "Why are you all here? And what's that smile on your face for—did you give Peeves mistletoe after all?"

"No, we opted out of that. It's because we've got one hell of a Christmas present for you," James grinned. "And it's got a lifetime guarantee on it, too—just like we do."

"Sounds hard to wrap," Remus commented.

James laughed.

"I think you'll like it anyways," he promised.

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Winter Bingo; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Gryffindor MC (x4); Marauders Tales; Bow Before the Blacks; Winter Wonderland; Seeds; Minerva's Migraine; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Friendship); Themes & Things B (Surprise); Themes & Things E (Pen/Quill); Ethnic & Present; True Colours; Rian-russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: 1405**

* * *

_**Winter Bingo**_

**Space (Prompt): **5C (Cookie)


End file.
